What Every IT Manager Should Know About Exchange Failover
and Centralized Backup

SPONSOR: AntiSpyware: #1 2005 Security App:

~~ The NUMBER 1 Security Application for 2005: AntiSpyware! ~~
A recent Forrester survey showed that a whopping 65% of companies
this year will get an antispyware application, over any other
security tool. And Network Computing concluded that spyware-
focused products were more more effective at eradicating malware
than old antivirus products that had antispyware bolted on as an
afterthought. Read the review in Network Computing that gave
CounterSpy Enterprise the Editor's Choice Award!Visit AntiSpyware: #1 2005 Security App: for more information.

This is huge. CounterSpy Enterprise was recognized for its modern
interface design, spyware removal abilities and ease of deployment.
We're stoked. CSE was evaluated in a comparative real-world review
of seven leading enterprise antispyware solutions. CSE earned top
marks for its impressive spyware detection and removal, best
reporting functionality and all-around excellent performance.

Featured in the September 22, 2005 edition of Network Computing,
the review cites CounterSpy Enterprise for its excellent spyware
detection and prevention and centralized management console
capabilities. In addition, CounterSpy Enterprise scored for its
speedy installation and deployment, clean and lightweight feel,
and focus on quick, intuitive access to scanning, updates, network
monitoring and reports. To download and print the full Network
Computing review, here it is in PDF format!http://www.w2knews.com/050926ED-Editors_Choice

Bill Gates Goes To College

As you know, every year on the Professional Developers Course
(PDC), Microsoft shows a spoof with Bill Gates in it. This year
they used a cult movie called Napoleon Dynamite for inspiration.
If you have not seen the original flick, the spoof does not seem
to make much sense. But if you have, the spoof is very funny.
Some one had a digital camera, and taped it (illegally) during
the PDC. This version first made it on the iFilm site, which has
thousands of these 4-5 minute short movies, some of them awesome,
and worth it to kill a few minutes while a backup wraps up [grin].

It was yanked from the iFilm site though, after some studio lawyers
made noise. You have to search for the sites that still run it
before the lawyers get to them. Google "Bill Gates Goes To College".
Talking about PDC and video, here are a whole bunch of technical
videos made at the PDC, some of these are very interesting too!http://www.w2knews.com/050926ED-PDC

Free Opera. Great Move, And No Ads.

This week, Opera Software announced the release of version 8.5 of
its web browser, available on Microsoft's Windows, Apple's Mac OSX,
Linux, FreeBSD, and Sun Solaris. The latest version is downloadable
at no cost and without banner ads. Their revenues are generated via
third parties such as Google and eBay and have grown more than
the money they make from ads, so they now believe they can gain
wider adoption by making their browser freely available for users.
In fact, they want to beat Firefox which is the No. 2 player with
8.3% (Redmond's share being 86.3%). Here is the download:http://www.w2knews.com/050926ED-Opera

Quote Of The Week:
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers
knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." -- Isaac Asimov
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that
power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted
by other things than power." -- David Brin
(both these gents are sci-fi writers by the way)

I found a really good and fun article on the Caffinated Security
site. This is the summary: "As system and network administrators,
we play many roles. We are the ones who provide stable and secure
environments for electronic business in all of its forms, from
email to accounting systems to mission-critical Web applications.

However, despite our best efforts, disaster will occasionally
strike. In this series, I'll present what I feel are the 10 most
important steps a systems administrator can take to ensure that
when that dreaded 3a.m. page hits, you're prepared to react quickly,
assess the situation, and make everything right again. I call these
the Ten Commandments of system administration. Here goes:

"We continue to see remarkable growth in the consumer segment and
in emerging markets." -- Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide
Quarterly PC Tracker. With a long-term growth outlook projected to
be stable at 9 per cent, IDC's latest global PC tracker report
says the consumer market segment in Europe, Canada, and the rest
of the world is the biggest driver; IDC said the commercial PC
segment is also strong worldwide.

How To Educate Employees About Spyware

We all know the threats posed by spyware to enterprise networks:
user ID and password theft, financial loss, productivity drain,
intellectual property theft. Security practitioners have two
defenses at their disposal: the human and the technical. While
the technology for combating spyware is improving, antivirus
vendors have only recently started adding functionality to target
it. That means the best defense is the human one - employees and
end users. They can help in the battle against spyware through
security awareness training and information security policies.
The full article is here:http://www.w2knews.com/050926TB-Educate

I still think you are waaay safer using Firefox over IE, but
now, according to security expert George Ou, Firefox has more
security vulnerabilities per month than IE. You need to read the
whole article to understand what he is talking about and how he
comes to his quite interesting conclusion:http://www.w2knews.com/050926TB-Firefox

Locking down unnecessary services is an excellent way to prevent
security holes in Windows client workstations. So says Windows
security author Jonathan Hassell in his review of 88 different
Windows XP services. He also gives the thumbs up or down on
which should be enabled. Over at SearchWindowsSecurity.http://www.w2knews.com/050926TB-XP_Services

NT/2000 RELATED NEWS

Microsoft Reorganizes

This week, Microsoft cut up their org chart and reorganized into
three core divisions, each with its own president: Platform
Products & Services Division under Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin.
(That is, until Jim retires after Vista is released); a Business
Division under Jeff Railes and the Entertainment & Devices Division
managed by Robbie Bach. The three units will report to Ballmer.

First time in a long, long time that Microsoft has done this. It
was prompted mainly by two things, the need to change how their
software is being written, and getting ready for mortal combat
with Google, Yahoo, Linux and companies like salesforce.com.

In a prepared statement, CEO Steve Ballmer proclaimed: "These
changes are designed to align our business groups in a way that
will enhance decision-making and speed of execution." He further
commented: "We need to improve agility," That makes sense, with
people like Google on their tail who are able to crank out new
software at a much faster pace than Redmond.

Well, if agility means that Microsoft can make faster decisions
and produce code faster, that would be good. But in reality,
I'm not so sure that three big divisions will be able to make
decisions faster than the old seven smaller ones, unless this
means less internal turf wars.

Redmond Adds 24/7 Support To Software Assurance

Of the benefits recently added to Microsoft's beleaguered
licensing maintenance program, the one most likely to appeal
to most enterprises is around-the-clock problem resolution
support. Microsoft added the 24/7 phone support for critical
outages for all products last week, as well as a handful of
other benefits in its regular efforts to make Software
Assurance palatable to the broadest range of customers.

"This is the most significant of the additions because it's for
unlimited Web support for all Microsoft server products," said
Alvin Park, an analyst at Gartner Inc., a Stamford, Conn.,
consulting firm. "I think this will be what generates people to
look at SA more than any of the other benefits." More about
this at searchwin2000:http://www.w2knews.com/050926RN-MS_SA

Microsoft Acquires Alacris

For companies that make public key encryption and smart cards
part of their security strategy, Microsoft's acquisition of
Alacris Inc., and the subsequent integration of this technology
into Windows, could potentially cut time and expenses out of
otherwise costly projects. Microsoft acquired the identity and
certificate management software vendor earlier this week for
an undisclosed sum. The acquisition choice of Ottawa, Canada-based Alacris is logical given that Alacris' software is already
tailored to work with Windows, experts said. More at:http://www.w2knews.com/050926RN-Alacris

Outlook Express Will Be Called Windows Mail

As part of Channel9's journey around Windows Vista teams, they
wondered what was being done to Outlook Express. Well, for Windows
Vista it's been renamed to Windows Mail. And that's not all.
Video length: 00:46:54.http://www.w2knews.com/050926RN-Windows_Mail

THIRD PARTY NEWS

iHateSpam for Exchange Now Filters Nearly 100% Of Spam

iHateSpam for Exchange Won The 2005 WindowsITPro Reader's Choice
Award. And for good reason:

The signature spam engine uses highly sophisticated signatures
that uniquely identify email. Using advanced algorithms iHateSpam
analyzes the genetic makeup of email messages and each email is
evaluated until the determination that an email is spam can be
made with confidence. For ultimate flexibility, iHateSpam has
protective measures to reduce the chance of email being incorrectly
quarantined.

End-users always get email from people in their Contacts folder.
Also, they can review spam that has been caught and can even
create their own personal whitelists and blacklists. Using a
proprietary custom forms technology, developed exclusively by
Sunbelt, end-users running Outlook can create and manage these
lists easily.

Lastly, as the admin, you can fine-tune the aggressiveness of the
spam engine. spam protection in place in mere minutes. Or you
can create separate policy templates for different groups or
individuals. And you don't have to set up and maintain lists
of blocked IP addresses and constantly create all sorts of
custom rules. Test it out on your Exchange Server for 30 days.

Best of all, if you get it now, you will be grandfathered into
Sunbelt Messaging Ninja that we expect before the end of the
year: Spam, AV, Attachment Filtering and a plug-in architecture
that allows for all kinds of other cool things to be added:http://www.w2knews.com/050926TP-iHSE

Load Balancing CounterSpy Enterprise

Sunbelt Software recently released Counterspy Enterprise 1.5.265.
It includes features that were built into the Update Service to
allow Agents that do not exist in the agent catalogue to receive
Agent software and threat database updates. We added these new
features to:

balance the load placed on the Update Service in large agent
deployment scenarios (2500+), and

alleviate bandwidth issues with Agents on remote sites
attempting to download their Agent software and threat
database updates from a single Counterspy Enterprise server.

InfoWorld has done a major shoot-out between a lot of spyware
and combo antivirus/spyware products. CounterSpy Enterprise made
it into the review and came out with an 8.5 out of 10 in the Top
2 of stand-alone antispyware point solutions, sharing the lead
with Webroot's 8.8. InfoWorld started out like this:

"Spyware outbreaks are escalating from a frustrating productivity
problem to an outright security issue. "All it takes is one
careless user who decides to satisfy his MP3 addiction by
downloading a free file-swapping program poisoned with malware.

"A backdoor application and keylogger install themselves, and
next thing you know, your company's Web sites have been compromised
and are acting as a file-sharing FTP site, and your domain regis-
trations have been changed to an offshore company". Here is the
whole article:http://www.w2knews.com/050926TP-CSE

New Release: Print Manager Plus 6.0

Software Shelf announced the release of Print Manager Plus V 6.0
for total accounting and cost control of all printing across an
enterprise of any size and kind. Version 6.0 is a major upgrade to
its award winning Print Manager Plus software for business, academic
and government organizations. Version 6.0 is the first Microsoft
verified and logo certified software to support Hewlett-Packard(r)
Multifunctional printers' (MFP) walk-up copying or printing. It
supports all printer brands, printers and plotters of any size and
operating systems.

Organizations have reported Print Manager Plus cuts their cost of
printing by up to 75%. Industry studies have shown that it is not
unusual for the cost of printing to reach the equivalent of 40% of
a company's labor costs or three percent of gross revenues.

This new version is a major step in Software Shelf(r) development
of product feature improvement to meet the needs and wants of its
customers at a license cost far below anything the market has seen.
The New and Improved points of Print Manager Plus 6.0 include
hundreds of new features to meet every need for reporting, billing,
security and authentication, and others to bring about with ease
and simplicity total cost control and accounting of printing that
meets the needs of the small office as much as the multinational
enterprise with hundreds or thousands of users or clients.

Installation is on the Windows print server. It is fully integrated
with MS Access installation wizard, as well as the MSDE installation
wizard or SQL installation wizard at the option of the admin. An
overview of the new Print Manager Plus 6.0 includes versions for
every market including:

We've developed a version of CounterSpy that can be put into
gateway appliances. Our first deal is with a company called
Cymphonix. They make a quite advanced appliance - it blocks
spyware and a lot more, such as shaping bandwidth (meaning, you
can give different users and applications different restrictions
and/or priorities on bandwidth). Check this appliance out at:http://www.w2knews.com/050926TP-Cymphonix

Cisco's bungling efforts to kill Michael Lynn's information on
how to hack Cisco equipment was caught on video of Cisco employees
tearing his presentation out of the BlackHat conference guide:http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/cisco.mov

This site is about a guy who could not afford any furniture, so
he got some FedEx boxes together and made some furniture. It did
not take to long for the FedEx attorneys to protest...http://www.w2knews.com/050926FA-Furniture

Blogs have gone mainstream. Next is VLOGS: the video version of
the blog. MeFeedia.com is a aggregator of video blogs. There are
about 1,000 VLOGS and it's growing fast. Warning though, some of
these clips are -not- appropriate for an office environment!http://www.w2knews.com/050926FA-VLOGS

What Every IT Manager Should Know About Exchange Failover
and Centralized Backup

What if your key application server went down today? Component
failure, power outages, operator errors, viruses and natural
disasters can all influence a system's availability. Sunbelt and
NSI Software would like to invite you to informative seminars in
Cleveland and Detroit. In these seminars, we will discuss strategies
for implementing high availability, remote availability and
centralized backup solutions.

You will get to see a demonstration of an Exchange failover as
well as learn how to begin to develop a tactical plan that you
can use to meet high availability and disaster recovery objectives
based on the needs of your business. All attendees will be
registered for a chance to win an Apple iPod. Further information
on Double-Take: